Archive for November, 2011

Former C-J reporter will be Edelen’s communications director

FRANKFORT — State Auditor-elect Adam Edelen confirmed Wednesday that Stephenie Steitzer, a former Courier-Journal reporter in Frankfort, will be his communications director when he takes office Jan. 2.

“Stephenie has an excellent knowledge of the issues in Frankfort and has demonstrated integrity in her jobs,” Edelen said.

Steitzer, who has been a speech writer and marketing coordinator for Keeneland since leaving the Louisville newspaper last February, said Keeneland has been a good place to work “but politics and policies are where my true passions lie.”

Edelen also said he will be announcing more staff positions next week.

–Jack Brammer

Gray talks to lawmakers about future of Rupp Arena

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT –Lexington Mayor Jim Gray told state lawmakers Wednesday he is pleased that a new feasibility study about the future of Rupp Arena shows “it is still very possible to retain the extraordinary, awesome energy of Rupp Arena while actually getting far more for our city for less money than a new arena would cost us.”

But Gray, after telling a legislative committee the positives of renovating Rupp Arena, stopped short of saying whether he prefers a new or renovated arena for downtown Lexington that is home for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team.

Gray said he wants “to listen” to the work of a special panel, the Arena, Arts & Entertainment Task Force, which is scheduled to complete its work Jan. 31 on the development of the 46-acre district that includes Rupp Arena.

“I’m willing to listen, I’m going to listen,” he said.

A feasibility study unveiled earlier this week says renovating Rupp Arena would cost between $110 million and $130 million, compared to $300 million to $325 million for a new arena.

It also said expanding the Lexington Center to add convention and exhibition space would cost $70 million, compared to $100 million to $130 million for a new convention center.

The study is to be discussed at a public forum at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Lexington Children’s Theatre at 418 West Short Street.

Judge orders the release of some child fatality records

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — State officials have ten days to produce 90 internal reviews of social worker files on children who have been killed or nearly killed as a result of abuse and neglect, a judge ordered Wednesday.

Lawyers for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services told Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd during a hearing on Wednesday that they were in the process of hiring temporary staff to redact more than 180 case files involving children who have been killed or nearly killed as a result of abuse and neglect. Those records will be made available after the staff has had time to redact the records, said Christina Heavrin, general counsel for the cabinet, which oversees child protection.

Senator offers redrawn map of Congressional districts

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT – Senate State and Local Government Chairman Damon Thayer unveiled his plan Tuesday to redraw the boundaries of Kentucky’s six Congressional districts.

Thayer’s proposed map is similar to the current map, with some changes because of population shifts.

Beshear orders 2 percent cuts in most state agencies to balance budget

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT – Gov. Steve Beshear has ordered most state agencies to cut their spending by 2 percent to help balance the state budget for this fiscal year that ends next June 30.

State budget director Mary Lassiter told lawmakers Tuesday that the various agencies will have to evaluate whether to initiate any layoffs to arrive at the cuts.

“If there are any, it will be very minimal,” she said.

No furloughs of state employees are planned, she added.

Gov. Beshear’s son represents company seeking tax breaks from state

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

A Hindu ground-blessing ceremony for a new company in Elizabethtown became a campaign controversy last month after Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear participated and his Republican challenger criticized him for it.

What went unnoticed is that one of Beshear’s sons, Louisville attorney Andrew Beshear, is paid to represent the company in question, UFLEX Ltd. of India, as it successfully moves to collect $20 million in tax breaks from the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. The cabinet has granted UFLEX preliminary approval for tax breaks, but the flexible packaging factory first must achieve specific jobs- and investment-based goals. It’s eventually expected to employ 250 people.

Steve Beshear oversees the cabinet as chairman of the Kentucky Economic Development Partnership Board; in 2008, he appointed his friend and aide Larry Hayes as the state’s economic development secretary.

Andrew Beshear handles economic development clients, including UFLEX, at the law firm of Stites & Harbison, where his father was a managing partner until his 2007 election.

The potential for conflicts of interest is obvious, an ethics watchdog said Tuesday.

Bill filed to block meth criminals from buying cold medicines

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The battle over how to combat Kentucky’s mushrooming methamphetamine lab problem is set to take center stage again in the upcoming legislative session.

On Tuesday, state Rep. Brent Yonts pre-filed legislation that would block the sale of cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine to anyone convicted of a meth-related crime.

Yonts, at a news conference in the state Capitol, said the legislation is a compromise bill that would help curb methamphetamine labs in Kentucky without punishing law-abiding citizens by requiring them to get a prescription for cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine.

“We have a common sense solution,” Yonts said. “It punishes the criminal. It does not punish soccer moms.”
But many of the state’s narcotics officers oppose the bill, saying it would do little to stop the proliferation of methamphetamine labs in Kentucky.

BEAM to have final report by October

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A group of the state’s top business and education leaders hope to have an economic development plan that would improve advanced manufacturing and increase exports from Lexington and Louisville by next October.

The group, called the Bluegrass Economic Advancement Movement, or BEAM, is the brainchild of Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.

On Monday, the mayors announced that the group’s 21-member board includes the heads of some of the state’s largest employers, such as Lexmark International, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, GE Appliances and Lighting, and Tempur-Pedic International. University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto and University of Louisville President Jim Ramsey also sit on the board.

During its inaugural meeting at the Kentucky History Center in Frankfort, the group heard from the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based think tank that is helping the group develop a plan to improve a 22-county area’s position as a leader in advanced manufacturing.

Richie Farmer divorce trial rescheduled for Dec. 29

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A trial in the divorce case of Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer and his wife of 13 years has been delayed until Dec. 29 as the two sides try to reach an out-of-court settlement.

Richard Guarnieri, a lawyer for Farmer, said on Monday that the two sides agreed to delay a trial scheduled for Tuesday until the end of December. The parties had tried mediation before but could not agree to a settlement.

“We are going to try to go through mediation again,” Guarnieri said.

Rebecca Farmer filed for divorce from the two-term agriculture commissioner on April 5 while her husband was running for lieutenant governor with Senate President David Williams. The Republican duo lost to incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and running mate Jerry Abramson by 20 points on Nov. 8.

Kentucky tourism commissioner suspended for unauthorized trip to England

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Kentucky Tourism Commissioner Mike Cooper was suspended without pay for five days in July for failing to get authorized approval for a trip to London, England.

Cooper, who held a key position in Gov. Steve Beshear’s 2007 inauguration and campaign, also was taken to task over travel expenses in a June 3, 2009, letter from Tourism, Arts and Heritage Secretary Marcheta Sparrow.

Questions about Cooper’s travel expense records prompted Sparrow in 2009 to initiate a new travel policy that states cabinet employees can only use state credit cards to buy airline tickets. Other expenses, such as hotel reservations, must be made using a personal credit card.

That rule has since been applied to the entire executive branch, said Finance and Administration Cabinet spokeswoman Cindy Lanham.